I’ll send over a recap…

“I’ll send over a recap of this conversation and some times.”

You ended the call with that line and then followed up forever. 

Never leave a call without a real next step (you know this).

Here are some fake ones:

→ Sending case studies
→ Sending pricing
→ Setting up a trial they didn’t ask for
→ “Send a recap and I’ll talk to my team”

None of these is a real next step.

That being said, if you bombed the first part of the call, you’re not going to get one... or you’ll get a fake one because people don’t want to say no to you. 

So how do you make it feel natural, without forcing people into an “accept” that doesn’t make sense for them?

1. Do your homework
   Before you get on the call, you should already have an idea of where you probably want to take things from here and who else you might want involved.
2. Let them in on your plan
   At the beginning of the call, tell them what a next step usually looks like and what would make it make sense. It sounds like: “If it makes sense after we talk today, I think a good next step might be to loop in your marketing team so we can get their specific requirements based on the systems they’re using now.”
3. Reconfirm the value
   At the end of the call, reconfirm why it’s important for them to keep having this conversation. Then tell them what they’re going to get out of the next call. (A walkthrough of your platform is not compelling enough.)
4. Offer a concrete time and date
   “Cool, let’s set up some time with your marketing team. You’re welcome to join (you don’t have to, but we’d love to have you there). I think 45 minutes should be good. How’s Wednesday or Thursday morning?”

This week:

Pull your last 5 discovery calls. For each one, write down how it ended. Was this a real next steps? 

Hit reply and tell me what you found.